Kokinshu #240

Written on "purple-trousers" and sent to someone.

    A memento of,
perhaps, someone who slept here?
    The purple trousers
keep perfuming the air with
a scent that's hard to forget.

—23 April 2012

Original by Ki no Tsurayuki. This seems to be referring to the common practice of men leaving behind a piece of clothing after spending the night with a lover, both as a keepsake in itself and as a reminder of his personal fragrance. If we take the plant's name as punning in this way, then Tsurayuki's using a female persona; if we take the plants as literal, however, he would be writing to a male friend. Or, given Tsurayuki's skill, perhaps he intends us to layer both meanings together in our minds. In any case, this is a more elegant use of the plant's name than the poems before and after it. A better phrasing, both for being more precise and less forced by the meter, would be "A memento, perhaps, of ... "

yadori seshi
hito no katami ka
fujibakama
wasuraregataki
ka ni nioitsutsu

---L.